The Warrior
by Wolveria
Summary: The Animorphs, a group of 5 teenagers and one alien, are fighting the Yeerks to protect mankind. The Yeerks are getting the upper hand with their latest creation, violent killer androids. All seems lost when a mysterious warrior comes to their aid. Her na


The Warrior

By: Laura Eyring

            My name is Laura.  I'm sure you know about the other Animorphs.  I'm sure you haven't heard of me.  First let me tell you a little about myself.  I have blond hair.  Blue eyes.  Stand at a height of 5 feet 8 inches, and have a pale purple star-shaped birthmark on my left palm.  I guess you could say I look like any other human teenager, yet I am like no other being anywhere in the universe.  Not to brag, it's just a fact, though rather well kept.  I am human, yes, but I did not grow up on Earth.  Oh no, I grew up in a galaxy far, far away…

            Incase you _don't_ know about the Animorphs, I will explain them to you.  First is Jake, the leader of our band of rebels.  He has the hardest job of all, playing the commanding general.  He must make life and death decisions that can save or kill his friends. His older brother, Tom, was a controller.  He also had to make decisions that could end his brother's life as well.  The most stressful position to be sure, but he has done better than most would have.  We are all still alive, more or less.

            Next is Marco, Jake's best friend.  At first glance he seems like your average smart aleck boy, but that isn't the case at all.  He is intelligent, and sees things others don't.  He can be ruthless, seeing the straight line from A to B in a situation, and doesn't let nonsense sentiments get in the way.  Qualities that would be most endearing in an Andalite.  Or a Yeerk.  Except when it comes to standing up against his mother, who was infested with Visser One, he cannot ignore his emotions and humanity.  She was the highest-ranking Yeerk below the Counsel of Thirteen, but more on that later.  He is the most reluctant Animorph, but was the one to actually come up with the name, which stands for Animal Morpher.

            Rachel is the warrior in the group.  Sure, we are all warriors, but she was _born_ for it.  If she had been born an Andalite (and a male) she could have been as great as Elfangor.  Marco calls her Zena: Warrior Princess, which about sums up her personality.  She always looks like she had just walked out of a fashion magazine teenage girls supposedly read, and nothing seemed to phase her appearance, even war.  She could probably walk through a barrage and come out looking photogenic.  She was Jake's cousin, and you can tell by their similar attributes regarding determination.  Rachel and I look alike in many ways, but from the first our personalities clashed.

            Cassie is Rachel's best friend, and is the opposite of Rachel in many ways.  Cassie dresses in overalls that are usually speckled with bird droppings from taking care of the animals in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.  Her parents are both veterinaries, with Cassie sharing her parents' passion for animals.  The father works in the Clinic, which is actually stationed in their barn, and the mother works at a local zoo and amusement park named The Gardens.  The barn is usually filled with injured or sick animals, from livestock to fowl to predators.  Though she may seem like an ordinary farm girl, she is quite more than that.  Her morals, I feel, have saved the group in past situations from making grave errors that would have made them stoop to the enemy's level.  She is smart and the kindest of the group.  Her reactions were also opposite of Rachel's when it came to me.

            Tobias is a boy trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk.  Not that it bothers him that much anymore.  It's not like every human gets to experience the ecstasy of flying on his or her own wings.  At the beginning of the war on Earth, he was trapped in hawk morph, but the Ellimist, the believed all-powerful being of the universe, gave him back the power to morph.  He could have chosen to morph into his human body and then be stuck that way without the power to morph, but what did he have to go back to?  A family that didn't want him, plus it would have made him a casualty of the war.  He is the most introverted of the group, and Ax and him have a special bond that concerned Elfangor.  Tobias is actually Eflangor and a woman named Loren's son, while Ax is Elfangor's brother.

            The last of the original team is Ax.  Full name Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.  He is the strangest in the group, being the only alien, but I have known him all of my life.  His older brother is Prince Eflangor, a legend himself.  Eflangor was like a parent to me, Ax like a brother.  Ax is, of course, an Andalite, which look like blue centaurs, a half-horse half-man creature that comes from human mythology.  Andalites also have two stalk eyes on top of their heads whose range are 360 degrees, no mouth and a long curved tail with a scythe blade at the end.  Andalites are possibly the most technologically advanced race (except perhaps the Ellimist himself), and are the mortal enemies of the Yeerks.

            Now you are probably wondering, what is "morphing" and what are "Yeerks?"  Well, morphing is an Andalite technology that gives the owner the ability to absorb DNA from any living creature through touch and to become that creature.  Also, any wounds disappear since DNA is not based on physical conditions.  Sometimes, I think we take that fact for granted.  A person cannot stay in a morph for more than 2 hours, or they will become trapped in that morph, a _nothlit_.  Like Tobias.

            Yeerks are aliens that look like oversized Earth slugs.  They crawl into the ear of creatures that possess large enough ear tunnels and completely take over the body, though they have to emerge every three days to absorb Kandrona rays.  Kandrona rays come from their home planet's sun, and it's vital for their survival.  The Yeerks move from species to species, spreading like a cancer.  Though not all Yeerks are evil, the majority of them are and they are power-hungry creatures that will go to any lengths to get their way.  If it wasn't for the Yeerks, none of us would have met, and none of the following events would have taken place.

            I suppose my story begins before I was even born.  My mother was 2 months pregnant with me when she met Elfangor, the Andalite war-prince.  He had gone down to the planet to hide the Time Matrix, a time machine and the most deadly weapon in the known universe, and to live out the rest of his life on earth with a human female named Loren.  Not everything turned out how he expected.

**  
**

**Prologue**

            Elfangor had his palm on the blue glowing square, guiding the fighter over the dark forest, looking for some kind of clearing or barren earth.  The soft light shone on his blue fur, his emerald almond-shaped eyes focused on the screen while his stalk eyes wandered about the interior of the ship.  The superior radar system found a small area void of trees, and he slowed the craft to hover over it.  Using his thoughts, he activated the shredder to vaporize a 10-foot diameter circle into the ground.  There was a flash of red, momentarily making the inside of the fighter looked as if it were bathed in blood.  Once completed, the ship lowered gently to the ground and touched down smoothly.

He would have to manually push the Time Matrix into the hole.  The Time Matrix was the single most powerful weapon in all the universe, and it could not be destroyed.  It was so dangerous because it was a time machine, its makers unknown.  So it would have to be hidden.  He would hide the Time Matrix, then destroy his ship and live out the rest of his life with Loren, the human female he loved.

            _I'm tired.  I'm done with this war_, he thought bitterly to himself.  He tried not to think about the fact that running away was a cowardly act that no true warrior would commit.  But he was so tired, mentally and physically, he wanted the killing and the horror and the pain to stop.  He could not stop the Yeerks from invading this galaxy, so he would pretend it wasn't happening and focus on something else, something he felt was more important.

            The Skrit Na, a troublesome species of alien that liked to collect oddities from different races, including the race itself, had kidnapped Loren and an annoying human named Chapman.  Accompanied by Alloran-Semitur-Corrass and a fellow _Arish_, Arbron, they had gone after the Skrit Na ship and that was how he met Loren.  The Time Matrix had also been onboard, had not been discovered until the ship had been let go and headed to the Taxxon home world.  They had faced unspeakable horrors there.  His prince had been infested with a Yeerk, and the young _Arish_ (or war-cadet) Arbron had been stuck in a body of a Taxxon morph.  Horrible things.

But Loren and the Time Matrix had been rescued out of enemy hands, and that had been something.  Only it had been too late for the human race.  Chapman had made a bargain with the soon-to-be Visser Three, had shown the alien that a nice little planet full of millions of host bodies waited for the taking.  All the conflict between Yeerks and humans had started because of one man.

Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul walked to the door, his four hooves lightly clicking on the grass-covered floor.  The Andalites were known to change their environment rather than to change themselves.  The door slid open, the opening first appearing like the crescent of a moon, then a half moon, and on to a full moon.  He surveyed the surrounding area, even though his computer had told him no enemies were at hand.  It was still instinct to look first before leaping.  Seeing nothing of course, he exited the fighter; his long tail poised high, the scythe on the end glinting from the light behind.

Elfangor turned to the Time Matrix, which was held onto the hull by the craft's artificial gravity.  He commanded the ship to turn off the gravity using his thought-speak, and rolled the weapon towards the hole he had created.  It proved some difficulty, since Andalite arms were not very strong.  But before he could push the white spherical object into the hole, he heard the soft subtle noise of light footfalls.  He looked up sharply with his main eyes, the stalk eyes looking around carefully.  He waited, ready to command his fighter to blast the intruder into molecules at any moment.

  


"Stan, stop it," Marlene chided, playfully pushing away her husband.  "That's not funny."

"Alright, I'll stop," he said, flashing her a boyish grin.  They were out for their nightly walk through the woods along the familiar path.  Stan had been trying to spook his wife, just for fun.  They were both actually in a very good mood.  Stan was going to get a very deserved promotion at work, and Marlene was pregnant with their first child.  He took her hand and gazed into her face when she looked towards him.  _She looks so beautiful_, he thought to himself.  Marlene smiled and gave him a gentle kiss as if she knew what he had been thinking.

They walked along the path, thinking about their future and about the unborn child, and of course, about each other.  Marlene's brows slightly furrowed when she heard a humming sound.  "Very funny Stan."

"That's not me," he said with an offhand shrug.

"You're not going to scare me…" she said, her voice not so full of mirth now.  Marlene stopped to listen.  Off ahead they could see a red glow through the trees and a strange sizzling sound that made the hair on the back of their necks stand up.  Marlene suddenly had a death grip on her husband's hand.  "What is that?" she whispered, panic's grip tightening on her throat.

"Maybe we should head back," he said, slightly tugging on her hand like a child that wanted to go home.  Then he found the painful sensation of her hand squeezing his disappear, she had began to walk ahead.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his whisper sounding almost like a hiss, walking briskly to catch up with her.  He saw Marlene's determined look, the face of a child who was going to have her way no matter what.  He didn't like that look.

"Marlene, stop.  It could be something dangerous."

"This is our home, and if there is someone on it who shouldn't be, we have a right to know," she responded, light blond locks of hair falling into her face.  He sighed and gave in, willing to let her have a look, but he was going to drag her out, willing or no, if there was any sign of danger.  Besides…he was a bit curious himself as to what that glow and those noises were.  It had to have been caused by somebody; nothing natural could have done that.

Marlene left the shelter of the trees first and froze, her body stiffening up with shock.  Stan's heart beat faster; the sight of his wife's reaction was more than slightly alarming.  He emerged behind her and saw what had made her go still.  Some sort of oddly shaped craft was lying on the ground.  It had two swept back "wings" and what looked like some kind of gun shaped like a poised tail.  It was clearly nothing manmade.  There was a large egg shaped object on the ground, and a very unusual creature beside it.

The creature resembled a blue centaur.  The lower body similar a large deer, the upper body humanoid.  It had no mouth and its nose was comprised of three vertical slits.  It had two moving stalks on its head with eyes attached to them, with two bright green eyes where they should normally be.  All four were staring directly at them.  It looked almost gentle, except when they caught sight of the long tail with the glittering scythe perched on the end.  The tail was raised above its head in an unmistakable hostile stance.

Marlene didn't breath; she only stared back at the impossible creature.  Because that's what it was.  Creatures like these only existed to bring in money at the Box Office.  No way could one be standing there in front of her.  It wasn't possible.  When she finally did breathe, it was a shuddered breath, difficult in coming.  She put her foot forward, and began to approach the creature, her brain seized up, unable to stop herself.

Stan's breath, on the other hand, came in shallow and fast, his head feeling very light.  His senses seemed to have taken flight from him, and they only returned when he saw Marlene begin to approach the thing.  He somehow found the part of his brain that controlled the motor skills of his legs, and he went after Marlene, grabbing her arm.  "Don't…" he began, but she shook his hand off.  To his absolute horror, she began to talk to it.

"It's alright…we won't hurt you.  Are you lost?" she asked, feeling too awestruck to be feeling foolish.  The centaur creature most likely didn't understand English, or even be able to talk without a mouth, but she was positive it would be able to understand her meaning.  Stan was close to freaking out, his steel-blue eyes wandering to the white object and his scrambled brain pouring out incredulous explanations.  Maybe it was a bomb, or the egg of some horrible monster that was going to destroy the planet.  Or maybe it was a capsule for some horrifying virus that would kill every living thing on the face of the Earth.

They both then heard something like a voice in their heads, like some kind of telepathy.  Marlene gave an ecstatic smile, while Stan looked as if a bus had struck him.

I am not lost, but thank you. 

Tears began to glisten in Marlene's eyes without her even realizing it.  Here was something that could change the planet if discovered, and she was witnessing it.  "Where…do you come from?"

From the Andalite planet, he replied, his eyes seeming to form a smile.

"What is your name?" she asked, coming closer to him.  Stan also came closer, but only to protect Marlene from the strange beast.

Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.  You can call me Elfangor if you wish.   He watched the two humans in fascination.  He had never met fully-grown humans before, and he was glad they were not hostile, since he was planning to soon live among them.

"What's that?" Stan asked, indicating the spherical white object, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible, not wanting to show any fear.  He didn't trust this creature one bit, and was very uncomfortable with the fact it was so close to Marlene.  And how the hell did it _talk_?

Something that needs to be buried, he replied, sensing the man's feelings.  He knew nothing about man's world, and even though Loren was 18, she was still mentally a 16 year old.  The Time Matrix had aged them both within seconds to be years older.  He would need allies here.  So what if he told these humans what the situation on Earth was?  Would it be a grave mistake?  _It doesn't matter anymore, _he reminded himself.

It is a dangerous weapon that needs to be hidden away from my people, and the Yeerks. 

"What are…Yeerks?" Marlene asked, her eyes the color of dark wood, glancing from the smooth white object back to the blue-furred alien.

They are parasitic aliens that live in the brains of other species, taking control of their bodies. 

"You mean there are more like you?" Stan asked.  He couldn't help but look over and stare at the spacecraft that sat there, a beautiful impossible machine that he suddenly yearned to take apart and find out what made it tick.

Elfangor's eyes hardened.  We are nothing like them.  They make slaves of whole species, while we dedicate our lives to chasing them all over the universe to rid them from existence. 

"And have you done that?" Stan asked, dragging his eyes away from the spacecraft and slightly narrowing them.

"Stan…" Marlene said, her eyes widening.  The last thing she wanted to do was have Elfangor be chased away.

The blue alien paused, and then spoke.  He is right to question.  No, we have not destroyed them.  But I am no longer apart of the war.  I've come…to bury this atrocity and live here on Earth. 

Stan had certainly not expected that response.  His mouth hung partially open, until he finally found his voice.  "What?"  He couldn't believe it, how could a blue centaur alien live in the middle of human civilization?  Or even out in a remote area?  It would be impossible, or damn near it; unless there was something he didn't know about.  Obviously, there were many things.

Elfangor's eyes formed into a smile again, and he nodded, a very human gesture.  I have my ways of not standing out. 

"But…how?" Stan asked quietly, slowly walking up to stand beside Marlene, realizing that this Elfangor was probably not going to attack them.

Elfangor hesitated, not yet ready to tell them something that could backfire on him.  His stalk eyes looked up towards the starry sky, looking for any sign of Bug fighters.  He had to leave very soon; he couldn't risk being caught or having these people seen with him.

If you will excuse me, I must bury the Time Matrix and be on my way.   He put his hands on the surface of the smooth object and began to push it nearer to the rim of the hole.

"W-wait, you can't leave!" Stan exclaimed, exasperated.

"He's right…you could be the greatest discovery of all mankind.  You can't just _leave_."  What Marlene really meant was how he couldn't leave her.  She had waited all her life to see something extraordinary, and here it was.  She wasn't just about to let that go.  She had to have proof it wasn't just a wishful dream.

Elfangor continued to push, until it had reached the hole.  The two humans watched him silently, emotions and feelings confusing their thoughts.  He still wasn't 100% sure he should tell them everything.  He heaved the Time Matrix into the hole, and then turned back to the humans, looking squarely at them both.  He couldn't just leave them like this, it was true, and he didn't want to erase their memories.  His stalk eyes kept a watchful lookout as he walked to them; dainty hooves leaving V shaped marks on the ground.

I mean it truly when I say I must leave now.  You must go back to your lives, and forget you saw me.  Not for my safety, but for your own.  If you do that, then I promise I will come to you and tell you anything and everything you want.  But you must promise, not a word of what you've seen here.  The universe depends on that. 

"Now you listen, I'm not-"

"Alright Elfangor, we agree."  Marlene sent her husband a look that made him close his mouth.  "We won't utter a word."

Good, Elfangor said, his eyes softening into that same smile.  Yes, he was definitely beginning to like humans.  They seemed to understand when his own species would not.  He set one hand on Stan's shoulder, and a hand on Marlene's.  She put her hand on top of his, her eyes shining brightly.  Stan's eyes, on the other hand, were slightly hooded, like a bout of sleepiness had just befallen him.  Elfangor removed his hands and bid them goodbye.

He walked to his fighter and looked back just before the door waxed and waned, shutting him in from the outside world.  Marlene's hair was blown back from her face as Elfangor's spacecraft rose into the air.  The red beam erupted from the tail of the ship, struck the hole where the Time Matrix lay, and the walls of the hole collapsed and fell on top of it.  Stan watched the marvelous craft turn and shoot off into the sky.  They both watched it go, feeling what they had witnessed had been nothing more than a dream.


End file.
